


In A Different Light

by MedicalAssisstanceSpareChange



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nightmares, could be seen as pre-zukka but atm it's not planned to go that way, forgot to mention- sokka gets nightmares too that's the whole point of this thing, obligatory Zuko Has Nightmares fic, sokka doesn't know when to shut up, takes place at the western air temple segment of the show, time for these two boys faced with a war to bond over weirdly similar pasts and help each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-24 17:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21341671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedicalAssisstanceSpareChange/pseuds/MedicalAssisstanceSpareChange
Summary: While wandering the halls of the Western Air Temple one summer night, Sokka hears something unexpected, makes an uncomfortable realization, and finds an unlikely friend.
Comments: 53
Kudos: 441





	1. Lantern

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time writing ATLA fic, so apologies if the characters/story seems a bit off! That said, I really am in love with this idea- I just started rewatching the show and this came to me after the scene where Katara breaks the iceberg (you'll find out why in later chapters.) Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are always lovely <3 -bels

Sokka would be lying- and not just a little bit, he'd be lying _majorly_\- if he said he thought that Zuko got nightmares.

It was just- he was  _ Zuko _ . The guy who was scary, not the guy who got scared. He may have turned good now, sorta maybe kinda ish, but he was still the firebender who’d chased them up and down the world. Still the guy who’d captured or hurt all of them at some point or another, still the kid who’d driven his ship right through the village walls-

Still a kid.

Zuko wasn’t even a full year older than him, and for all Sokka knew he was a warrior he was perfectly aware he still had a good deal of growing up to do. But Zuko was trickier to remember. Watching the guy firebend or practice his dao… the dude just didn’t act like a  _ kid,  _ e specially when Katara was going off at him. when he would flicker between anger and shame and always settle on a perfectly crafted blank expression for a disturbingly long time. Like he wasn’t even there, really. He couldn’t be a kid if he wasn’t  _ there, _ which was a frankly ridiculous thought, except that it wasn’t.

Zuko just did not act like a kid, and Sokka just could not think of him that way. Until the night he realized Zuko got nightmares.

Sokka shouldn’t have even been up. But the comet was soon and they weren’t ready enough and sometimes the what-if’s plagued his mind too much to sleep, so he’d taken a lantern and wandered around the temple. It was an exercise to him; marking defenses, weak points, advantages, letting his mind try to come up with ingenious ideas to distract from the immediate future. It almost always worked.

Except that night he’d walked down the prince’s hall, accidentally- easy to forget he was there when he didn’t even  _ sleep _ with the group- and heard the tail end of a half-strangled whimper that had his senses on high alert.

_ Intruder _ had been his first thought, images of someone fighting Zuko racing through his mind, only to be immediately dismissed. Zuko could be sneaky, but he’d make sound to warn the rest of them that an enemy was there, and  _ whoa _ , when did he start putting that much faith in the jerkbender? Pain, then; the guy might have hurt himself somehow, burned during firebending practice, and Sokka could totally understand why he hadn’t told the group in that case. Aang, or worse yet Toph, insisting Katara heal a guy she hated with every fiber of her being? Bad idea.

But hey, Sokka was a nice guy. And nosy. Definitely that. And Zuko was  _ so fucking weird _ and Sokka really, really wanted to know more about why he was such a jerk.

So Sokka walked down the hall, not too loud, and knocked twice on the door before poking his head in-

_ Oh. _

If it wasn’t for the lantern clearly showing the emptiness of the room, Sokka would have gone back to his original theory that Zuko was fighting someone. The dude was… not quite thrashing, but definitely more than twitching, shiny with sweat beneath the lantern light. His pillow had been tossed across the room, his hands were grabbing at something, though the air above him was empty. His feet scrabbled against the mattress.  _ Moving backwards from something _ , Sokka realized.

Then his eyes drew back up to Zuko’s face, and he would never admit it but his heart twinged. He’d never seen such terror, such desperation. With his scar turned away and hidden by the shadows, with an expression that Sokka’d never seen before…  _ everyone looks younger when they sleep, but... _

It curled in his stomach, the realization. Zuko looked young. Zuko  _ was _ young.

Young and scared and what had  _ happened  _ to make him dream whatever this was?

Fully inside the door now, Sokka couldn’t look away. Noises reached his ears: quiet whimpers, sharp gasps, choked-off beginnings of cries that Sokka couldn’t make out. He thought he could hear him pleading, saying “no” over and over, but it didn’t exactly shed light on what the guy was dreaming about. "Don't," he choked out at one point, and then "please" a few seconds later, and then-  


Without warning, Zuko stopped moving. He went deathly still with such ferocity that Sokka actually flinched. He wasn’t relaxed, though, fists clenched and back arched slightly and chest barely moving in shallow pants through his half-open mouth.

And then he said “ _ Mom _ ” in a half-strangled cracked scared  _ young _ voice as his eyes flew open. He turned and twisted, and his scar was towards Sokka as he reached off the bed for something that wasn’t on the floor and suddenly the water tribe warrior realized just how massively  _ screwed  _ he was.

“Um,” he squeaked, because there really wasn’t anything else to do.

Zuko froze again, but his head snapped up to narrow those scary golden eyes at Sokka. Who suddenly realized that not all the shininess on his face was from sweat.

“I- I didn’t- um.” The room was brightening and dimming now, but Sokka barely registered it, too busy trying to make sure he wouldn’t turn into Sokka flambe. “I- I was up, and I heard you. Sorry?”

Still silent- was the jerkbender ever not creepy?- Zuko shifted to sit on the edge of his bed, head hanging between his shoulders. His breathing matched the light’s shifting glow, and a quick glance to the lantern confirmed to Sokka that the firebender was controlling it. Which, weirdly, made him safe. Zuko was sneaky, but he attacked from the front, usually. He wouldn’t explode the lantern in Sokka’s grasp- or, rather, he would have done it already. 

“I’ll just…” Sokka stepped backwards. He didn’t need or want to deal with this. He didn’t want to think about Zuko, young and scared and thrashing, calling out for-

_ Mom _ .

He’d helped Katara through so many nightmares, after… after. She’d woken up crying, screaming, hell, even bending once, ripping snow through the walls to blast what she thought was a firebender in her dreaming state. But she’d never gone still like that, never gone silent.

And curse him for a bleeding heart, but Sokka wanted to help, if only because it was a bad idea to have an emotionally unstable firebender who’d formerly been one of the greatest threats to Aang’s success try and teach the airbender after having a dream like that. A _very_ bad one, filled with potential explosions and another Jeong Jeong “never firebending ever” outcome.

Totally just that. He didn’t care about the guy. Even if he’d been… cool, these past few weeks. 

So he tried. Lifted the lantern a bit, holding it towards Zuko. “Um… do you want me to leave this here?” Katara always liked having her water skin; it helped her feel connected to her element. “For… breathing, I guess?”

Zuko made a strangled grunt, then huffed, rubbed at his face once, and looked up at Sokka. He had that blank expression on again, but it was cracked, melted by the tear tracks on his cheeks and the last vestiges of lost panic in his eyes. He shifted his gaze from Sokka to the proffered lantern. 

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “You need it anyways, if you’re gonna be walking around here at night.”

Which… was _so_ wrong. Nightmare, hello? Really really bad one? Emotional trauma and clearly needing to talk? Why was he worried about  _ Sokka _ and his… “I never told you I was walking.”

The cracks in Zuko’s expression suddenly sealed up with anger. Sokka didn't react. “It’s the middle of the night, you’re away from your friends, and you’re not facing any threat. It was an easy deduction.” The lantern flared brighter as he snarled, and for the briefest of moments Zuko paled.

“What were you dreaming about?” Sokka asked, ignoring the anger. A tactic he’d learned with Katara: let them approach the nightmare from their own perspective, with their own emotions, otherwise he’d probably be of no help.

“Nothing.”

Which was bullshit. “Zuko, I’ve never seen anyone have a nightmare like-”

“It’s nothing, Sokka.” He dropped his gaze from the lantern, turned away, shoulders raised like he was ready to defend himself if need be. Was he scared of Sokka? Sure, he prided himself on being scarily good at taking control of a bad situation, but he didn’t even have his sword here and there wasn’t room for Boomerang to work properly. He wasn’t...

He was tired. He was a water tribe warrior who’d grown up too fast, who already had to look after three cranky kids half the time. He didn’t need to add a fourth, especially when the jerk was older than him and a  _ firebender _ . “Fine,” he grumbled. “A guy tries to help, and what does he get? ‘Get lost, Sokka,’ like I don’t hear that enough.”

...He was  _ not _ going to think about that, either.

Zuko was still stubbornly staring out the window as Sokka set down the lantern and left. He’d walked the path from here to the group in the dark plenty of times when Zuko first joined them, scared as Katara that he would somehow turn against them. He’d made sure he was able to walk that path with his damn eyes closed in case Zuko attacked on a new moon, when Katara’s bending was weak. He’d be fine without the lantern.

And besides, when he peeked back in a few moments after not quite shutting the door (sue him, he was curious, he was- Tui and La, he was  _ concerned _ ), it was clear that Zuko had needed the little fire far more than he had, if the way the firebender was silently crying over the flames that leapt in time with his hitching breaths was any indication.


	2. Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka has his own nightmare and another realization. TW for implied/offscreen death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the super sweet comments and the kudos!! I didn't expect to have this chapter up so soon (and sorry for the wildly varying lengths, this whole thing is gonna be like that I'm afraid) but honestly I was shocked by the wonderful reception and got super motivated by that alone. 
> 
> Also, I have a question: for the next chapter, would y'all like the continued Sokka perspective, or would you like a glimpse inside Zuko's head? I have ideas for both, and I'm horrible at deciding sometimes so I figured I'd let y'all choose. Thanks again for reading! Hope you enjoy it <3 -bels

The world was a chaotic mess of snow and ice and ash and screams. Fire laced the snowflakes, burning through the blizzard and forcing Sokka to dodge as he ran. 

The world was a chaotic mess of snow and ice and ash and screams, and one of those screams was Mom and one of those screams was Katara and Sokka  _ promised- _

_ No no no you can’t take her too- _

A tent, looming out of the blizzard. It was burning. It was home, and it was burning and screaming.

_ Mom. _

Mom was screaming as the fire suddenly grew unbearably hot and Katara was screaming as she ran out of the tent, too young for this war and old enough to understand what was happening, and Sokka couldn’t do anything as she stared in the tent and screamed for help.

Then everything went silent. Katara’s eyes widened and Sokka was just out of reach, couldn’t pull her away from watching as the firebender killed-

_ Mom! _

Killed-

Noise, again, as the fire suddenly blazed higher. Katara was wailing, and the snow stopped dead in the air, the raid screeching to a halt around them, but still the ash fell. The ground, the  _ ice,  _ started shaking and Sokka fell down, looking up at his furious grieving sister as she bent everything she could reach. 

_ Like the iceberg- _

Katara’s arms rose as fire raged before her, their home crumbling. The flames were nothing compared to the wave his little sister had summoned, though, a wave so tall it blocked out the sun, a wave held up by Katara, who was eight and too young for the war, who was fourteen and a master bender and tasked with stopping it.

_ Don’t do this don’t do this don’t do this- _

His little sister who he couldn’t protect, whose arms trembled as she fell to the ground sobbing. 

And the wave came crashing down-

-down-

- _ down- _

-and collided with the world with the sound of a muffled curse and a feeling in his stomach like Appa had descended a bit too fast.

Sokka was sitting up, blankets tangled all around him and covered in sweat despite the chill. The fire held little more than dimly glowing embers, but it was still enough to see the startled face of the firebender halfway across the pavilion from where the group slept.

_ Great _ . It’d been a week since that awkward conversation in Zuko’s room. He’d steadfastly avoided that section of the temple in his nighttime wanderings, and add in the fact that the jerk didn’t spend time with them outside of cooking and eating and training Aang and, well, it had been a simple matter to avoid him like hell. Until now, apparently.

Zuko was still staring, half-bent over like he’d tripped, and the warrior realized it must have been him who cursed as he ripped himself out of the nightmare. Sokka sighed and untangled himself from the blankets. He was careful to not let a corner near Toph; he’d lost many a good blanket to her lightning-fast reflexes and he wasn’t planning on spending his evening begging her for it back. When he was finally free, he stood up, deliberately not looking at Zuko, and trudged into the temple. No lantern needed; he basically had the place memorized now.

The prince didn’t engage him, thank Tui and La. Sokka headed for the main hall, where Aang said the airbenders would have eaten together and often played games and danced during festivals. The place was empty now, of course, nothing but old tables and worn banners and overgrown plants, but it was nice. It had big windows to look out over the world as he sat at a table, and from that vantage point Sokka often felt like the world- and the future- was a bit more manageable.

Watching the vague lightening of the sky, Sokka shoved the nightmare aside. It was nothing he hadn’t dealt with before, nothing he couldn’t handle so long as he was left alone.

“Can I sit here?”

“What the-” Sokka did  _ not _ yelp, thank you very much, even if he did nearly fall off his perch. Zuko stood next to him, looking slightly surprised that Sokka had been startled after being  _ sneaked up on _ .

“Sorry.” Silently as he’d arrived, Zuko slipped back into the deeper shadows, clearly intending to leave.

Which wasn’t what he wanted, although Jerkface wasn’t exactly his first choice for company. But… neither was anyone else. Aang was stressed enough and too young, Toph wasn’t exactly known for being gentle and was also too young, and Katara… no. Just no. She’d want to know what he’d dreamed about, she’d use all the tricks he’d used on her over the past six years to make sure she was okay, and if she found out he'd dreamed about her losing control, she'd be hurt, crushed even. And Sokka had promised Dad he'd protect her.  


He wanted Dad, but Dad wasn’t here, and Zuko was the next best person to dump his emotional shit on if the need arose. After all he’d done to them, it was the least he could do for Sokka.  


Which, on second thought, was really weird. “It’s fine,” he managed to say in a strangled voice.  _ Totally chill, having Zuko sit here. Like it’s a bro moment or something. What the hell is my life? _ “You, uh, yeah. You can sit here.”

For a long moment, there was silence. Sokka was about to turn to see if the teenager had already disappeared when said teen was suddenly sitting down next to him, stubbornly not looking at him. His scarless side was next to the warrior, eyes closed as he faced out the window, and as they always did in silence, Sokka’s thoughts started racing. Why had he come here? Had he followed Sokka on those sneaky jerk feet all the way from the pavilion, or was it a genuine mistake? If he’d followed Sokka on purpose, why wasn’t he saying anything? Did he come out here when he couldn’t sleep, too, and they’d just never crossed paths before? Or had-

“What?” The prince’s irritable voice snapped Sokka out of the clouds his head had been in- shit, he’d been staring. Zuko’s eyes still weren’t open, but the dude had a weird ability to tell when someone was paying attention to him.

“I-It’s nothing.” Sokka looked back out the window. The sky was still dark and full of stars, but there was a lighter gray over the distant islands that told him dawn was sooner than he’d thought. Zuko didn’t respond, and silence stretched between them, but the peaceful moment grated further on Sokka’s nerves as he tried to make his mind go blank. Sitting there with Zuko.  _ Prince _ Zuko. Who was also Aang’s teacher and really good with swords and used to be evil. And he was just chilling by Sokka.

He had to break the silence before he screamed. “Why are you awake? I know firebenders rise with the sun, but you guys hate when it’s not in the sky.”

Zuko shifted, his eye cracking open for a second. Gold looked weirdly gray in this light. “Same as you, I guess.”

“Oh.” Sokka rested his elbows on his knees. “Sorry.”

The dude just shrugged, and then the silence was back.

Ten seconds. Fifteen seconds. Sokka buried his head in his hands. He wanted to screech; how was Zuko comfortable in silence? How was anyone? The village was never quiet, traveling with Katara and Toph and Aang and Appa and Momo was never quiet- he  _ still _ couldn’t tell who snored worse, Toph or Appa- and life in general just hadn’t been quiet ever since the Avatar levitated out of an iceberg and asked to go penguin-sledding. Twenty seconds; Zuko might not even be breathing, for all Sokka could tell.

Except when he looked up, Zuko was watching him, though it was still too dark to make out his expression. “ _ What _ , Zuko,” he muttered, as irritated the firebender had sounded when he’d asked the same question. After last week, he wasn’t up to try and navigate a conversation with him; after that nightmare, he didn’t really want to talk at all.

“You… uh, seem stressed.” For a prince, the guy was definitely the most awkward person Sokka had ever met. “I know nightmares are bad, so…”

Disbelief etched itself on Sokka’s face. “Are you offering to  _ talk _ about my nightmare with me?”

“I guess so.” Zuko looked back out the window, kicking at the floor. “If you want.”

Silence, for a third time, but Sokka barely noticed it. Zuko, offering to be an emotional rock in Sokka’s emotionally turbulent state? Zuko, talk about emotions? With  _ him? _ What the hell had the world come to, that Ponytail was trying to be supportive?

“Are you sick or something?” He didn’t mean to be rude; it was just… too weird. Zuko. Emotional support. That was supposed to go as well as sparks and coal mines. “Like. Do you have a fever? Should I check our medical supplies?”

“What?” Sokka could make out the gold in Zuko’s eyes now as they slid back towards him, narrowed in confusion. “I’m not sick.”

“You’re being weird. You’re offering emotional support, I didn’t even know you knew what that  _ was _ -”

“I can leave if you’re just going to insult me.” With a rough movement, Zuko was standing, facing Sokka with his fists clenched. Sokka tensed, curling his own fingers around the bench in case he needed to launch himself away from an attack. “You- I  _ try _ to be nice, I try to be good, because I’m  _ supposed _ to be here, I'm supposed to try and help! And I know you have every right to hate me but I can’t even hold a conversation with anyone but Toph half the time. I don’t know why I try, I know you’re not going to stop hating me-”

Sokka didn’t hate Zuko.

“- but I try anyways because apparently I can’t get that through my skull! I get it now, though.” Zuko breathed out and looked away. His scar was smoother somehow in the predawn light, and Sokka didn’t hate him. “I get it, okay? I’ll leave you alone.”

“I don’t hate you,” he blurted out. And it was true, though honestly Sokka was just as surprised as Zuko by that fact.

The prince just snorted, looking like the bitter guy he’d first been when he’d come to the village. “You don’t have to lie, Sokka.”

“I’m not- I don’t! Spirits, Zuko, I don’t hate you. You’re just… e-everything is just weird.” Sokka sighed, reaching up to pull at his wolf tail. “I definitely used to hate you, but you’re cool now. Well, not cool, you’re a firebender, but, y’know. You’re okay.” A shakier sigh. “I just… the war really,  _ really  _ screwed things up and I don’t know if we- if I can fix it.”

“Oh.” Zuko relaxed, hands uncurling. “Yeah, I… I get that.”

“I’m just the plan guy, y’know? I’m supposed to figure out what the Fire Lord’s doing, how to stop him, how to make sure he stays down when he’s beaten because if he’s anything like y- like your sister-”  _ do not compare Zuko to Ozai unless you want to become Sokka flambe  _ “-he won’t be stopped just because we beat him. He’ll keep trying until he can’t anymore, or until he wins. And- and it just feels hopeless sometimes! I’m the oldest one here and half the time I don’t even know what I’m doing, how are we supposed to take down the greatest threat to the world if I couldn’t even-”

The dawning sun was strong enough now for light to warp at the edges of Sokka’s vision, where the tears were forming. His dream burned through his brain, like the tent had burned around Mom.

Screw it. He’d already opened up about his insecurities to the waiting Fire prince, he might as well open up about his past. “I couldn’t even save my mom. And after that I couldn’t protect the village, even if I pretended I could. And then Aang came along and suddenly we’re flying all over the world and the last promise I had-” His voice cracked. He’d promised Dad he’d protect Katara and he couldn’t even do that most of the time in this crazy broken world.

Zuko sat down next to him again, tentative but solid. Sokka didn’t look up, but he could see where his arms rested on the table, and he felt the air shift next to him as Zuko sighed.

Just as shame from showing his deepest fears started to drip into his chest, the silence was broken. “I’m older than you.”

Sokka huffed, suddenly annoyed. “Tui and La, that's not what-”

“You’re doing way better than me.” Zuko bulldozed right over him. “A year ago, I was fifteen and still thought my father was right about everything. I thought… look, however scared you are, at least you’re not a failure.”

“I never said I was.” And the way Zuko had phrased that-

“You were thinking it.” The jerk’s voice held no doubt; he knew he was right and Sokka did too. “Trust me, I know what it sounds like when people think they’re failures. But even so- you’re not. You beat me over and over again, when I was chasing you.”

“Aang and Katara helped me,” Sokka countered. “I was just-”

“The plan guy?” Zuko interrupted, and Sokka looked up to see a tiny smirk on the jerk’s face. “ _ And _ you managed to escape my sister. I only got away from her by being banished.”

Sokka shuddered at the memory of Crazy Blue Fire.  _ How did you get banished? _ part of his brain wondered.  _ Why did Azula make you want to run so bad? _

But most of his brain was occupied with the conversation. “This is a bit different than evasive maneuvers and figuring out how to disappear or distract someone.” He couldn’t help the sarcasm in his voice; he was the meat and sarcasm guy too, after all. “This is stopping another genocide before it starts, on a day where they have an insanely huge advantage.”

“So think about it differently.” Zuko shrugged, shifting as the first proper rays of the sun slipped through the windows. His hands stretched forward across the table, as if he wanted to gather up as much sunlight as he could reach. “I followed you long enough to realize that I needed something new every time, and that was just to have a chance at succeeding. You’re good at adapting and adjusting, and you’ve got the luck and skill to pull off some real miracles.” The prince turned to look at him fully, and to Sokka’s extreme amazement, there was something like an actual smile on his face, highlighted by the rising sun and full of determination and hope. “I know that if anyone can stop my father and save the world, it’s you.”

_ I know _ . And that smile had  _ faith _ in it, faith in Sokka.

If it had been Dad who’d said that, Sokka would’ve felt pressured. If it was Katara or Aang, he would have thought they were saying what he wanted to hear. Toph… okay, Toph he’d take at face value, though he wouldn’t have felt better. But Zuko wasn’t just saying it, he was  _ convinced _ , and he was just another guy like Sokka who’d been through a lot, and that made a whole world of difference.

“Thanks,” he said lamely, tears pricking his eyes again. Zuko nodded, facing back towards the dawn and closing his eyes again.

Sokka sat there silently, feeling better. The world was broken, and the war had taken so much from him he’d never get back. But he could fix it. He would come up with something, and it wouldn't be perfect maybe but it would work. Already, he was considering what Zuko had said about a different angle, considering the airships and his enemies and his allies.

He glanced back at the firebender. He looked young again in the dawning light, and peaceful. Sokka was pretty sure he’d never seen that on Zuko before. Watching him breathe in deep, like he was dragging the sunshine itself into his lungs, totally focused on whatever breathing meditation thing he was doing, made Sokka feel peaceful too. Was it a firebender thing, to drink in the sun like it was the only thing that mattered?  


He was a curious guy. He turned towards the sun too, squinting his eyes shut against the red-orange glow, and focused on his breathing.

...yeah, that was actually really nice. Maybe a firebender thing, but one he could appreciate.  


So he sat there, breathing with Zuko as the sun rose. He wasn't worried for once, just experiencing the moment. He knew he'd see Dad and Suki and his home again. He knew he'd come up with something to win the war. He knew Toph would be able to locate them as soon as Katara started freaking out that Sokka was gone, and he knew Aang would distract her as soon as she started seething at Zuko for being so much as friendly towards her brother.

...oh, Tui and La, he was  _ friends with Zuko _ . Barely, but undeniably. Zuko had emotionally supported him and he wanted to do the same back and he didn’t even mind spending time just hanging out with the guy who’d gone from trying to capture them to doing his absolute best to help. It was insanely weird, but then again, so was Sokka’s whole life at the moment. If anything, being friends with- well, he wasn’t Prince Ponytail anymore, he’d lost that look- if anything, being friends with Zuko was just about normal.

Katara was going to be hell to deal with once she realized, though.


	3. Afternoon Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka asks Zuko to spar, and somehow they end up talking about sisters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks! Sorry there's been a few more days in between chapters- this one was trickier to write, probably because I kept trying to write it at one in the morning. It was an *incredibly* close call on whether or not to do Sokka or Zuko for this chapter- actually, until after I'd already written this, it was basically a tie! I ended up going with Sokka after a lot of deliberating; it felt more natural to do this over my other idea. Zuko POV technically won as of a few hours ago, but I already had the whole chapter written up and half-edited.
> 
> Zuko will be POV for the next chapter, though! And the rest of the group will be there too, which oh my GOODNESS I'm excited to try my hand at writing Toph and Aang (I know there's some other people there with them but we'll see if I feel comfortable writing them.)
> 
> Also, this chapter is the first one where I really feel that I might be less than canon compliant. It's more the characters- Katara especially, although it's still all of them to an extent- that I don't necessarily feel I have as good a handle on, but I think I got close at least? Ah well. Nothing wrong with a bit of creative liberty! And as always, if you want to ask me about my takes on the characters, or anything really, or if you just want to let me know how you feel- I do love any and all comments I get and respond to all of them, even if it takes me a few days. Kudos are appreciated too! And I don't know if I put it somewhere in the notes of an earlier chapter, but if you'd like to chat with me elsewhere/see me ramble about other fandoms I'm in, I'm on tumblr: @personfullofplotholes. Thanks for reading, y'all! <3 -bels

Now that they were friends, Sokka figured he didn't need to waste any time.

The day after the weird sunrise bro moment they’d had, Sokka’d finally decided to bite the boomerang and ask Zuko to spar. For all his posturing, he was pretty sure the ex-prince would flatten him, which was more or less exactly what happened. Sokka got in some lucky blows, even some actual good ones, and he technically won the last round, but he knew Zuko wasn’t focused fully on the fight at the moment so it didn’t really count.

He  _ had _ been completely zeroed in on their spar not even two seconds before Sokka won. Seeing the concentration on the guy’s face brought Sokka back to simpler times, when he was only traveling with two freakishly good benders instead of four and Zuko was just the guy constantly on their tail. Which, again,  _ weird _ . It almost made him hold back at moments, not wanting to succumb to the instincts inside him that screamed how that scar meant  _ enemy _ and those gold eyes meant  _ danger _ and he needed to be either running or fighting for his life. Fighting  _ dirty _ , which was really not the point of this.

Besides, Zuko was a friend, sort of. And after the nightmare Sokka knew he’d had- or, more likely, the multiple nightmares, he seemed way too practiced at not freaking out from them- Sokka really didn’t feel like the jerk deserved any more reminders of his past evil deeds.

Especially when Zuko’s eyes had suddenly went wide mid-charge and slid to his left, back towards the little camp they’d set up. Sokka was quick to take advantage of his distraction, quickly disarming him and pointing his sword at the prince’s throat with an exhausted but victorious whoop. Zuko had looked back at his sword for a brief moment, eyes still wide like he was surprised, and then back to the side.

“I heard fighting,” said a voice chillier than any midwinter wind, and not for the first time (they were siblings, after all) Sokka bit back a long-suffering groan at the sound of his sister’s voice.

His sword lowered, nearly clanging against the ground as he turned to face her with Zuko. “It was just a spar, Katara.”

“With  _ him? _ ” She didn’t even look away from Zuko as she spoke to him. It twisted in Sokka’s gut; she looked so  _ hateful _ , and yeah Zuko really hadn’t ever been great to them before, but why was she still doing this? He didn’t know how to reach her. She’d become a powerful fighter in her own right, and Sokka would never contest that, but it sometimes felt like he’d lost his little sister in the process.

“Yes, with him,” he replied calmly. “He’s the only other one who knows how to fight with swords around here, and it’s more fun to practice with another person.”

“ _ Fun _ .” Finally, Katara looked at him, her gaze lightening up only microscopically. “I didn’t realize we had time for fun, with the comet coming up and the war still happening. Don’t you have plans to work on? Plans that the  _ son of the Fire Lord  _ shouldn’t know about?” Her fingers twitched by her water skin, something Sokka had seen her do a hundred times a day since Zuko joined their group. 

Sokka loved his sister, even if he almost never said it, but he was  _ so _ sick of her threatening and meddling-

“I didn’t mean to distract you.” Zuko’s voice was just loud enough to carry to Katara, though his words were meant for the swordsman standing next to him. His head was ducked down slightly, eyes still pointed towards Katara but aimed at her feet. “I- I’m sorry. I can go practice on my own…”

“Yes, you should.” Katara cut in as Sokka’s jaw dropped. He’d been the one who’d asked Zuko to spar! Katara should be berating him if she were sincere about her reasoning! But his sister just smirked vindictively as Zuko quietly kept his eyes down and slid his dao away. “We’ve got plenty to worry about without making sure there’s no _ threats _ around.”

Sokka snapped his head back towards Katara, suddenly angry. Over a week he’d been putting up with her not-so-passive passive aggressiveness towards Zuko, because up until a few days ago he’d not really liked Zuko enough to care. But this was too much. Katara was _not_ going to undo what little work Sokka had put into figuring out the prince just to alienate the guy as much as humanly possible. Wasn’t going to ruin the first  decent friendship he’d _ever_ had with a guy his own age. This was her grudge, and it shouldn't be affecting _his_ choices, thank you very much.  


But making her understand all that required talking with her first. “I’ll see you later, I guess,” he told Zuko with a clap on the shoulder. And smiled, despite the churning in his gut at the thought of confronting his sister. “We should spar again soon, yeah? I bet I’ll be able to knock you on your butt next time.”

He really, really didn’t like the way Zuko glanced at Katara before giving a single short nod.

Sokka watched him walk away for a moment before turning around to face his sister once more. She still had her eyes locked on the firebender’s retreating figure, and if looks could freeze Zuko would have long since been a prince-cicle. Sokka took a deep breath, sheathed his sword, and walked towards her.

Katara’s glare finally lightened as she looked over at him, now more frustrated than furious. “You shouldn’t-”

“Shouldn’t what?” he all but snapped at her. “Shouldn’t be trying to improve my swordsmanship so we have every possible chance of winning during the comet? Shouldn’t be letting myself take a break because stressing about the plan is keeping me up at night? Shouldn’t be occupying our newest group member, in case he really is plotting against us?”

Katara’s eyes hardened at the last question. “He will  _ never _ be a part of our group. But, Sokka,” she continued with a softer voice, “you should have told me how stressed you were. I could have tried to help-”

“Stop, Katara.” Tui and La, it was so tempting to give in to her sometimes, to let her help and say soothing things. She was his little sister, but she was so good at taking care of him, of them all; she always had been, ever since Mom. But Sokka wasn't here to focus on himself. “I was the one who asked him to spar, you know. He was helping me get stronger, and he definitely never hurt me, and you  _ still- _ ”

“I was _protecting_ you!” She flung her hands out, the same way she had when this whole adventure began, but Sokka had long since lost the instinct to flinch. “He hasn’t changed, he’ll  _ never  _ change! Why am I the only one who understands that?”

“That’s not  _ true,  _ Katara, you-“ He wanted to yell. He wanted to yell so badly, about her grudge and how she was being unfair to everyone and how they had a war to focus on that was _way_ more important than her stupid grudge, and how Zuko wasn’t a bad guy once you talked to him for more than a minute. He wanted to yell about how unfair it was that she was a waterbender and how she’d always had someone back home and how she’d never gotten stuck  _ cleaning Appa’s toes  _ because she wasn’t  _ useless _ and he wanted to yell at her for-

He slammed down on that last thought with a sharp inhale, jaw set.  _ Not. Her. Fault.  _ And he didn’t yell about any of the other things, because he’d made a promise to protect her, and he would  _ keep that promise _ .

And then he felt horrible, because he’d nearly yelled at his sister and she didn’t deserve it and he’d thought he was over  _ that  _ but apparently not. 

_ Dammit. _

“Sokka?” His sister’s voice was softer now, and she’d laid her hand on his tense arm. “Are you okay?”

It took him a long moment to respond. “Yeah.” Which was a lie, but a necessary one. “Just… have some faith, okay? In me, if not in Zuko. I can take care of myself.”

“...Fine.” She gave her own huff, hand sliding off of his arm. “Just be careful.”

“Of course,” he promised, and it wasn’t a lie. Even if he pretty much trusted Zuko, he knew to be cautious when there was a war going on. “I’m gonna go keep working on my moves, I’ll be back for dinner.”

“I’ll see you then.” Katara smiled, so different from the hateful girl of three minutes ago. “We’ve got plenty of meat, even. I’ll make a nice stew, okay?”

And yeah, his sister could be really stubborn and mean and infuriating, but moments like this he loved her.

Which absolutely didn’t stop him from heading the same direction Zuko had gone once his sister was out of sight. He doubted he’d find the firebender easily- the temple was pretty freaking big- but he at least knew two places where he was  _ more _ likely to be. Even if that knowledge was only based on the times Sokka had seen him there. 

If they were gonna be friends, he definitely needed to know more about Zuko than his potential hidey-holes. 

His bedroom was a bust, as was the morning hall, but while wandering slowly back to the pavilion he heard the sound of swords sharpening. A grin slipped onto his face as he tracked the tiny echo to a little room up a nearby staircase. He had no clue what it had previously been used for, but he mentally designated it as a Zuko Brooding Spot before walking up to it. Just because he wanted to know more about Zuko didn't mean he didn't also want to know all his hidey-holes.  


Now, Sokka could be very quiet when he wanted to, and he knew it. Years of hunting on the ice had helped; snow could get  _ crunchy _ . It was a skill that helped him often, whether it was silently rowing a canoe through an ice field covered in dozing polar leopards that would gladly kill him for a meal or sneaking out of the tent to keep watch in case the Fire Nation attacked at night, or in case Dad came home suddenly. It had taken a bit of adjusting to learn how to be equally silent on thawed earth or in cities or just about anywhere they’d been since Aang left his ice cube, but by now he was sneaky as ever.

And because of that, there was no way Zuko should have known he was there before he’d even rounded the corner into the room. But there was also no way he’d just hallucinated the way the scrape of the whetstone paused before a familiar rough voice asked, “Sokka?”

No more sneaky feet. Sokka flung himself into the room, eyes bugging out as he stared at the firebender and around the room. “You  _ knew _ I was  _ there?  _ Is Toph here? Did she hear me with her weird earth magic or something- wait, can  you _ sense_ people with _firebending_? Do you have some freaky heat vision?”

“What?” For a split second, Zuko’s mouth quirked up into a smile, and it almost looked like he was going to laugh. “No, I just- I heard you walking. Same as Katara when we were sparring.”

“I was  _ way _ quieter than her!” First the badass swords, in  _ addition _ to the bending, and now inhumanly good hearing? What could the stupid prince _not _do? The protest felt childish, but Sokka couldn’t care. He  _ knew _ he was quiet, even quieter than Bato; he was the best hunter in the village! He’d snuck around Fire Nation ships before, and the metal on those things made a butterfly’s wings sound loud. And he hadn’t even heard Katara walk up on them over the sound of their fight; how had the jerkbender?! “There’s no way you heard her, let alone me.” 

“Katara stomps like a komodo-rhino when she’s coming to yell at me. And... you were... quiet,” Zuko said, making it somehow sound like a peace offering, like he didn't believe it but maybe Sokka would be satisfied with the concession. “Definitely a lot sneakier than some of the assassins who came after me.”  _ What?  _ “But Ty Lee and Mai are almost silent, and I had to be able to listen hard enough to wake up if Azula sent them after me when I was asleep. It was worse if she came herself.”

What the-

“Wait. Waitwaitwait.” Assassins. Evil sister.  Assassins who were friends. Friendly assassins? Didn’t he used to  _ date  _ one of those girls he’d mentioned? “I- that- let me get this straight. You have unnaturally good hearing because people tried to… hurt… you?” He couldn’t bring himself to say  _ kill _ . Zuko was sixteen and he’d only ever been younger. People- his sister notwithstanding- shouldn’t have made him fear for his life.  


“I mean.” Zuko balanced the whetstone on his thigh, putting the sword down on the bench beside him. “I don’t really hold a grudge against the assassins, that’s just politics. And Mai and Ty Lee only did what Azula told them to, and she liked trying to kill me herself too much to let them do it, so I don’t blame them either.”

He sounded so sickeningly casual as he said it. Like it had just been a fact of life- no. It  _ was _ a fact of life for him. Azula wanted to kill him, and she liked to set her friends on her brother, and he’d learned to hear the softest sounds in order to make sure she didn’t succeed. No wonder the guy was twitchier than a rabbit-mouse snare. He'd known there was no love lost between Crazy Blue Fire and Zuko- hadn't Zuko even said that Azula would kill him if she could, back in that abandoned Earth Kingdom town?- but he hadn't actually _believed_ him.  


How much else had Zuko not actually been lying about? How wrong had they been about the firebender ever since they first crossed paths?

“Sokka?” Unlike his sister, concern roughened Zuko’s voice further as Sokka leaned against the nearest wall and slid down. His fingertips rubbed against his temples, and he stared blankly at the firebender’s shoes when he spoke.

“That,” he said with extreme emphasis, “is  _ so messed up. _ ”

Zuko was silent. A glance up revealed that the older teen was staring at the whetstone on his thigh, frowning behind the hair that had fallen in front of his face. Sokka didn’t fail to notice the painfully reminiscent look in his eyes, or the lack of surprise in the way he still held himself loosely. 

The silence lasted for a few beats before Zuko broke it. “That’s just how I grew up.” He shrugged, mouth turning down into something bitter before he moved to grab his sword.

“You shouldn’t have had to deal with that, seriously.” Sokka clenched his jaw again in frustration as the prince brushed off his words with a casual shrug. 

“Like I said, it’s just politics.”

“That still doesn’t excuse it.” Tui and La, he was being as stubborn as his sister about this, why couldn't he just listen- wait. Nightmares. Benders. His sister. A spark of inspiration came to him, and he continued before the silence could truly let the conversation die. “Sometimes I have nightmares where Katara kills me.”

_ What am I doing?  _ He had no clue if this was the right thing to do. For a plan guy, he had a real talent for leaping first and looking later, and right now his plan was to run his mouth and pray as he fell. “It’s never on purpose. Not really; she gets upset at something, and then she bends on accident and the next thing I know I’m dead in the dream and awake in real life.” She'd bent without meaning to so many times growing up, and he'd never really stopped being scared. Knees drawn up to his chest, Sokka looked out the window at the bright sky before continuing. “I’ve never told her, but sometimes when I’m really down on myself? I think about it. I wonder if it could happen in real life, or if she’d ever do it on purpose. And I… I know she never would, I trust her enough to believe that. But I can still imagine her doing it, y’know?”

He could blame the brightness for the watering in his eyes. He  _ would _ .

Zuko was still and silent, so Sokka kept going. “And I don’t- I don't know if that makes me or her a bad person. But I think it’s neither of us, because I still love her, and she’s never really scared me enough to make me think she would do that, let alone actually try. And- and if she did try to kill me, or even scare me into thinking she would… I don’t think I’d be a bad person unless I did it first.”

Finally, Zuko breathed. Heaved a deep sigh and dropped his head further forwards, elbows resting on his knees to keep him from slumping over entirely.

“I did do it first, though.” He spoke low and quiet, as if confessing. “At least, I think I did, even if I didn't actually want to hurt her. But she probably thought I did. We don't... we haven't talked about everything that happened when I was chasing you. But I'm on the good side now, I know I am, even if you'll never believe me."  Sokka wanted to interrupt and tell Zuko he did believe him, but the prince was already struggling to find his next words. "I just... I don't know if that makes me a good person. It definitely doesn't make Katara think I'm a good person; she'd kill me if I gave her any reason to. But I'm supposed to be good now, even if I'm bad at it." He looked up at Sokka. "But she's always been on the good side, and she still wants me dead."

The worst part was, Sokka didn’t even feel too inclined to defend his sister because he knew it was true. He’d known it was true for weeks now, and he hadn’t done anything about it. Until a week ago, he'd _agreed_.  


“You’re not a bad person, Zuko.” It didn’t even feel weird to say it. It was just a fact. Zuko was a good guy now. Things changed and so did the moon, and the sun kept rising and the snow kept falling. “Even good guys don’t always get along; sometimes we hate each other.” He’d hated Jet after Gaipan, although the idiot had quickly been forgotten in light of more pressing matters. “Sometimes, we even want each other dead. Life’s just like that.”

Zuko scoffed. Sokka could only imagine what examples he was thinking of from his past. He hadn't even known Zuko a year, and he could think of plenty.  


“I never wanted her dead, at least. Azula,” the prince clarified when Sokka looked startled. “Even when she had everything and I was failing over and over, I probably hated her, and I definitely wanted to get away from her. But I never wanted her to die. I was just scared.” He looked scared now, even if he probably didn't know it. He looked young and like he just wanted to curl up in a ball and hide at the simple memory of his horrible sister.  


Of all people, he suddenly reminded Sokka of Aang. The Avatar, who didn’t even want Zuko dead after the eclipse, when he’d showed up offering his help. Just… gone. 

The sudden mental image of Zuko trying to fly a glider made Sokka snort, catching the prince’s attention. Sokka just grinned at him, feeling oddly relaxed for the somber conversation. “To be fair, if my sister was a maniacal, manipulative, rabid polar-bear-dog of a person who liked to hurt innocent people, I’d be pretty dang scared of her too.”  


“Yeah, you got lucky.” Zuko gave a half-smile back, his fingers finding the whetstone again. Sokka’s own hand drifted to his blade, and he eyed the prince’s tool.

“Any chance I can borrow that?” he asked, gesturing at the stone when Zuko just stared. “Master Piandao taught me a lot about using swords and thinking like a swordsman, but I’m a little behind on maintenance.” And he’d made do quite well, but the whetstone for Boomerang just didn’t cut it for his super cool space sword.

To his surprise, Zuko lifted up his own sword, freeing the bench next to him. “Here,” he offered. “I can show you how to take care of the edge properly.”

_ Score!  _ Sokka all but scrambled onto the bench, plopping himself down right next to the prince. The afternoon sun shone warm on their legs and hands as Zuko started to explain proper sword care. He’d gotten through the basics and was staring at their swords, waiting for Sokka to finish honing his edge and presumably catch any mistakes, when suddenly he let out a snicker. 

Sokka stared at him, utterly confused because he'd literally just done two strokes with the stone, and Tui and La was this the first time he’d ever heard the guy  _ laugh _ ?

“What?” he said warily, wanting in on the joke but uncertain that it wasn’t about him.

Zuko tipped back slightly, breathing deep. “ _ Heat vision _ ,” he snorted, and Sokka’s brain took a few seconds to catch up before he started protesting that it  _ could _ have been a thing, and by then Zuko had tilted his head back in all-out laughter and Sokka couldn’t help but join in even as he spluttered our protests for how it  _ totally could have been a thing, you jerk _ . So he was an idiot; what else was new?

Heat vision would have been way cooler- way  _ nicer _ \- than the truth, anyways.

But hey, Zuko was laughing, which was another thing Sokka hadn’t been totally sure he knew how to do, and he was teaching Sokka how to take care of his weapon, which was about the most bro thing Sokka could conceive. There were still things wrong, of course. The afternoon sky was bright as it reflected off the scratched surfaces of their weapons of choice in this horrible war, and he knew he would crash from emotional and physical exhaustion after dinner and Zuko would be forced to retreat to his lonely room. 

But for a long time after their laughter died and the swords were sharpened, until the bright afternoon light changed into the warmer colors of sunset, the world felt okay.


End file.
